Bobby Byrd’s Biography — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at Last.fm Listeners Biography Bobby Byrd (Robert Howard Byrd, Toccoa, Georgia, August 15, 1934 – Loganville, Georgia, September 12, 2007) was an american funk, soul, rhythm & blues, gospel singer, songwriter and record producer. Bobby Byrd was raised in the relative security of a church going family in Toccoa, Georgia. His family were respected members of their congregation and active in supporting their community. He was active in his local church's gospel choir, The Zioneers and then made a local name for himself in the Gospel Starlighters. It was a time when Church elders disapproved of secular singing so Byrd and the other members of the Gospel Starlighters would leave the state to perform secular material as The Avons. Byrd provided vocals, piano and organ and led a group including: Sylvester Keels, Fred Pulliam, Doyle Onglesby, Nashpendle "Nash" Knox and Nafloyd Scott on guitar.

James Brown and The Famous Flames In 1952 Bobby Byrd was playing baseball against the inmates of the Alto Reformatory prison team and met the music mad James Brown apparently showing off his singing to other inmates. Byrd befriended him and arranged for Byrd's family to oversee Brown's parole. It began a personal and professional association that lasted until 1973 and although Byrd had twenty years plus as a solo performer it is his association with Brown for which he is chiefly remembered. Brown was a remarkable tour de force of vitality and personality and within a short time he had not only joined the Avons but he was directing affairs changing their name to The Flames. Byrd recognised early that Brown was unique and that it would be impossible to control him: 'I didn't need him in competition, I needed him with me, that's why I worked so hard to get him over to my group' The group, with the addition of Johnny Terry and Baroy Scott on bass, moved to Macon, Georgia and signed with the King subsidiary label, Federal.

Their first record Please, Please, Please appeared in February 1956 as by James Brown and the Flames, a fact that did not please some members of the band and after just three sessions the original Flames had split. At the final session Byrd and Brown wrote the rhythm & blues dancer 'Can't be the same' the first of many co-colloborations with Brown many of which Byrd failed to gain credit. The Flames without Brown changed their name to Byrd's Drops of Joy but found the going tough so that when Brown approached them to reform the Flames they agreed. The power within the group was now with James Brown. At this point, The Famous Flames ceased being a vocal/instrumental group, and became a straight vocal group, as there was no need for additional instrumentalists, since Brown, in the interim, had already began to employ his own road band, the old J.C. Davis outfit, which became the first incarnation of the new James Brown Band (now a separate entity from The Flames,who were now all vocalists save for Byrd, who sang and occasionally also doubled on keyboards). Original Flames members Bobby Byrd and Johnny Terry returned, and new Flames members Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth were added.

Original Flames guitarist Nafloyd Scott also returned, and was added to the band.This was in 1958. Byrd also recorded many solo funk tracks, most famously "I Know You Got Soul" (1971), which have been sampled by musicians including Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, LL Cool J and A Tribe Called Quest. He was the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames, the vocal group with which James Brown first became famous. Byrd is actually the man who discovered James Brown. Byrd and Brown met in a Georgia youth detention facility, where Brown was an inmate. Byrd's local baseball team played the prison team of which Brown was a member. It was Bobby Byrd's family that sponsored his release and took him in afterwards. Byrd was leader and founder of a vocal group called The Avons when Brown joined in the mid 1950s. The Avons later became The Flames, then The Famous Flames, before they were repackaged with Brown as the frontman.

James Brown and the Famous Flames, with Byrd as a member, recorded many hit singles, including "Please, Please, Please","Try Me", "Think", "Bewildered", "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep", "I Don't Mind","Shout and Shimmy" , " I'll Go Crazy", and many more. Brown and The Flames were also known for their powerful on stage performances across the United States in venues such as the Apollo Theatre in New York, (where they recorded the million-selling Live At The Apollo album) the Regal in Chicago, and The Royal Theatre in Baltimore (where they recorded the 1964 Top 10 live album, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal) and on film in the 1964 concert film, The T.A.M.I. Show, where they upstaged The Rolling Stones. Byrd also appeared with Brown and the group in the film Ski Party (1965), Dick Clark's American Bandstand, and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show. Byrd was the only member of The Flames to remain with Brown when the group disbanded in 1968.

In 1993 Byrd released a solo album On the Move on the German record Label, Soulciety Records. In October 2004 Bobby Byrd's songs "I Know You Got Soul" and "Hot Pants" were featured on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, playing on fictional radio station Master Sounds 98.3. In September 2005 his song "Try It Again" appeared on the soundtrack of Indigo Prophecy. He was married, for many years until his death, to soul singer Vicki Anderson, another James Brown collaborator. His stepdaughter is Carleen Anderson. On September 12, 2007, surrounded by his family, Byrd died of cancer, aged 73 in Loganville, Georgia. As a long-running right-hand man, Bobby Byrd performed an invaluable function in the James Brown Show, warming up the crowds as a solo singer, then retreating to the sidelines as a member of the Famous Flames, Brown's backup vocal group.

Indeed, without Byrd, James Brown may have never made it out of Georgia: in the early '50s, Byrd and his family sponsored Brown's parole from prison, and Byrd gave Brown a spot in his vocal group, the Flames (which, of course, Brown eventually took over and relegated to the background). Like many of Brown's close associates and support musicians, Byrd got a chance to record his own records under Brown's direction, releasing numerous Brown-produced singles between the early '60s and early '70s. Some of these were even modest R&B hits — "We're in Love" (1965) and "I Need Help (I Can't Do It Alone)" (1970) were the biggest, making the R&B Top 20. Brown's backing musicians (and sometimes Brown himself) often figured heavily in the arrangements, and unsurprisingly the tracks often sounded like James Brown records featuring a different vocalist. The unfortunate problem was that Byrd was an average, even nondescript soul singer, sounding much more like a poor person's Sam & Dave than a facsimile of Soul Brother Number One.

The records were often fine, the early '70s hard funk singles in particular (which usually featured the JB's cook), but you can't help wondering if they might sound a lot better with J.B. himself on the front line. Still, fans of the James Brown groove will find a lot to like in Byrd's best recordings, in much the same way as they'll enjoy the James Brown's Funky People series of recordings that J.B. oversaw (but did not sing lead on). Certainly Eric B. & Rakim thought so, reworking one of Byrd's best singles (1971's "I Know You Got Soul") so faithfully that legal action ensued. After splitting from Brown in 1973, Byrd recorded sporadically and performed often (particularly in Europe), releasing On the Move in 1994. Actually On the Move was released by TK records in Miami Florida earliier than 1994 with Byrds band the Brass Byrd Band a group from Saginaw Michigan but only two remained with the group from Saginaw at this time Arthur Dixion and Sax player and brother Errol (Earl the Pearl Lovechild) Caviness.

Caviness was Bobby's band leader for many years. · January 14 at 3:00am · ******QUOTES about The FAMOUS FLAMES:****** The albums "Pure Dynamite! Live At The Royal Theater" and "Live At The Garden", from 1964 and 1967 respectively, offer up further proof as to why (James) Brown and his dynamic vocal group The Famous Flames were one of the best concert acts on the planet !!" - Universal Music "If JAMES BROWN was the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business", The FAMOUS FLAMES were the Hardest Working GROUP !!" - Smokey Robinson, 2012. ... "(Brown) is, justifiably, a charter inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His Famous Flames – Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett, Baby Lloyd Stallworth and Johnny Terry – were inducted into the Rock Hall during this year’s ceremonies" Universal Music, 2012. "Yes, James Brown was the most FAMOUS of The Flames...but we were ALL Famous Flames". - Famous Flame BOBBY BENNETT.

"Debating who belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a pastime that's been around as long as the hall itself. Who's better than who is in? Who influenced whom? Who did what first? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've heard it all before. Well, there's no debating the Famous Flames". -The Cleveland Plain Dealer. "The Famous Flames were a vital element in Brown's success, as their electric stage presence made Brown's performances legendary. Before being dubbed the "Godfather of Soul," Brown was a Famous Flame, and it was his years with that group that made him a driving force in the world of soul music. " - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Following James Brown & The Famous Flames (onstage in the 1964 concert film "The T.A.M.I. Show) was the the biggest mistake of our careers." -Keith Richard of The Rolling Stones "“I want (people) to know one thing,” replied Bennett. “We were the Famous Flames… James Brown was a Famous Flame, Bobby Byrd was a Famous Flame, Lloyd Stallworth was a Famous Flame and Bobby Bennett was a Famous Flame…wherever we played, we were the Famous Flames.

We were never the band, NEVER. We were the 3 guys who danced (and sang) with him and the 3 guys who performed with him at every concert. WE WERE NOT NO BAND ." - -Famous Flame Bobby Bennett. "The combination of the gospel-derived harmonies of the Flames and the intense leads of Brown made the group the THE UNDISPUTED LEADERS of the soul movement and THE MOST EXPLOSIVE ACT IN ALL OF ROCK !!!" -Digital Dream Door . James Brown - Music on Google Play James Brown About the artist James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and bandleader. The creator of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul". In a career that spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters, in which he was the lead singer.

First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group The Famous Flames with the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music. 1 $7.92 Gravity is the 56th studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released on September 15, 1986, by Scotti Bros. Records. It was largely written and produced by Dan Hartman and Char... 1 Marvin Gaye 0 Marvin Gaye was an American singer, songwriter and record producer.

Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a stri... 0 Curtis Mayfield 0 Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. He fir... 0 Sly & the Family Stone 0 Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic musics. The group's core lin... 0 Aretha Franklin 0 Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18... 0 The J.B.'s 0 The J.B.'s was the name of James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s.

On records the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as The James Brown Soul Train, Maceo and the Mac... 0 Bobby Byrd 0 Bobby Howard Byrd was an American R&B/soul singer, songwriter, bandleader, talent scout, record producer, and musician, who played an integral and important part in the development of soul and funk... 0 Otis Redding 0 Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a se... 0 Funkadelic 0 Funkadelic is an American band that was most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, pioneered the funk music culture of that decade. 0 Stevie Wonder 0 Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. A child prodigy, he is considered to be one... 0 Ray Charles 0 Ray Charles Robinson, known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer.

Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray." He... 0 Isaac Hayes 0 Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was an American singer-songwriter, actor, voice actor and producer. Hayes was one of the creative forces behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both ... 0 Rufus Thomas 0 Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels including Ch... 0 Johnny "Guitar" Watson 0 John Watson, Jr., known professionally as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, was an American blues, soul, and funk musician and singer-songwriter. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T... 0 Al Green 0 Albert Leornes "Al" Greene, often known as The Reverend Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, in... 0 James Brown | Genius James Brown About James Brown James Brown was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, producer, and dancer.

Known as the “Godfather of Soul,” he was the founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance. Brown influenced the development of several music genres in a career that spanned six decades. Brown was born nearly stillborn, then revived by an aunt in a country shack in the woods outside Barnwell, South Carolina on May 3, 1933. Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group called the Avons that later evolved to become the Flames and then the Famous Flames, and became the group’s lead singer. Hit ballads “Please, Please, Please” and “Try Me” brought national public attention in the late 1950s, as Brown built a reputation as a relentless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra.

His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” , “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly “Africanized” approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music. By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” and “The Payback.” He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit “Say It Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Brown continued to perform and record until his death in 2006 from congestive heart failure. Popular James Brown songs James Brown and the Famous Flames | Download Music, Tour Dates & Video | eMusic James Brown and the Famous Flames Rate It!

Avg: 4.0 (8 ratings) Born: Barnwell, SC Biography All Music Guide All Music Guide: "Soul Brother Number One," "the Godfather of Soul," "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business," "Mr. Dynamite" -- those are mighty titles, but no one can question that James Brown earned them more than any other performer. Other singers were more popular, others were equally skilled, but few other African-American musicians were so influential over the course of popular music. And no other musician, pop or otherwise, put on a more exciting, exhilarating stage show: Brown's performances were marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing. Through the gospel-impassioned fury of his vocals and the complex polyrhythms of his beats, Brown was a crucial midwife in not just one, but two revolutions in black American music. He was one of the figures most responsible for turning R&B into soul and he was, most would agree, the figure most responsible for turning soul music into the funk of the late '60s and early '70s. After the mid-'70s, he did little more than tread water artistically; his financial and drug problems eventually got him a controversial prison sentence.

Yet in a sense, his music is now more influential than ever, as his voice and rhythms have been sampled on innumerable hip-hop recordings, and critics have belatedly hailed his innovations as among the most important in all of rock or soul. Brown's rags-to-riches-to-rags story has heroic and tragic dimensions of mythic resonance. Born into poverty in the South, he ran afoul of the law by the late '40s on an armed robbery conviction. With the help of singer Bobby Byrd's family, Brown gained parole and started a gospel group with Byrd, changing their focus to R&B as the rock revolution gained steam. The Flames, as the Georgian group was known in the mid-'50s, signed to Federal/King and had a huge R&B hit right off the bat with the wrenching, churchy ballad "Please, Please, Please." By that point, the Flames had become James Brown & the Famous Flames; the charisma, energy, and talent of Brown made him the natural star attraction.

All of Brown's singles over the next two years flopped, as he sought to establish his own style, recording material that was obviously derivative of heroes like Roy Brown, Hank Ballard, Little Richard, and Ray Charles. In retrospect, it can be seen that Brown was in the same position as dozens of other R&B one-shot: talented singers in need of better songs, or not fully on the road to a truly original sound. What made Brown succeed where hundreds of others failed was his superhuman determination, working the chitlin circuit to death, sharpening his band, and keeping an eye on new trends. He was on the verge of being dropped from King in late 1958 when his perseverance finally paid off, as "Try Me" became a number one R&B (and small pop) hit, and several follow-ups established him as a regular visitor to the R&B charts.

Brown's style of R&B got harder as the '60s began; he added more complex, Latin- and jazz-influenced rhythms on hits like "Good Good Lovin'," "I'll Go Crazy," "Think," and "Night Train," alternating these with torturous ballads that featured some of the most frayed screaming to be heard outside of the church. Black audiences already knew that Brown had the most exciting live act around, but he truly started to become a phenomenon with the release of Live at the Apollo in 1963. Capturing a James Brown concert in all its whirling-dervish energy and calculated spontaneity, the album reached number two on the album charts, an unprecedented feat for a hardcore R&B LP. Live at the Apollo was recorded and released against the wishes of the King label. It was this kind of artistic standoff that led Brown to seek better opportunities elsewhere. In 1964, he ignored his King contract to record "Out of Sight" for Smash, igniting a lengthy legal battle that prevented him from issuing vocal recordings for about a year. When he finally resumed recording for King in 1965, he had a new contract that granted him far more artistic control over his releases.

Brown's new era had truly begun, however, with "Out of Sight," which topped the R&B charts and made the pop Top 40. For some time, Brown had been moving toward more elemental lyrics that threw in as many chants and screams as they did words, and more intricate beats and horn charts that took some of their cues from the ensemble work of jazz outfits. "Out of Sight" wasn't called funk when it came out, but it had most of the essential ingredients. These were amplified and perfected on 1965's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," a monster that finally broke Brown to the white audience, reaching the Top Ten. The even more adventurous follow-up, "I Got You (I Feel Good)," did even better, making number three. These hits kicked off Brown's period of greatest commercial success and public visibility. From 1965 to the end of the decade, he was rarely off the R&B charts, often on the pop listings, and all over the concert circuit and national television, even meeting with Vice President Hubert Humphrey and other important politicians as a representative of the black community.

His music became even bolder and funkier, as melody was dispensed with almost altogether in favor of chunky rhythms and magnetic interplay between his vocals, horns, drums, and scratching electric guitar (heard to best advantage on hits like "Cold Sweat," "I Got the Feelin'," and "There Was a Time"). The lyrics were not so much words as chanted, stream-of-consciousness slogans, often aligning themselves with black pride as well as good old-fashioned (or new-fashioned) sex. Much of the credit for the sound he devised belonged to (and has now been belatedly attributed to) his top-notch supporting musicians such as saxophonists Maceo Parker, St. Clair Pinckney, and Pee Wee Ellis; guitarist Jimmy Nolen; backup singer and longtime loyal associate Bobby Byrd; and drummer Clyde Stubblefield. Brown was both a brilliant bandleader and a stern taskmaster, the latter leading his band to walk out on him in late 1969. Amazingly, he turned the crisis to his advantage by recruiting a young Cincinnati outfit called the Pacemakers featuring guitarist Catfish Collins and bassist Bootsy Collins.

Although they only stayed with him for about a year, they were crucial to Brown's evolution into even harder funk, emphasizing the rhythm and the bottom even more. The Collins brothers, for their part, put their apprenticeship to good use, helping define '70s funk as members of the Parliament-Funkadelic axis. In the early '70s, many of the most important members of Brown's late-'60s band returned to the fold, to be billed as the J.B.'s (they also made records on their own). Brown continued to score heavily on the R&B charts throughout the first half of the '70s, the music becoming more and more elemental and beat-driven. At the same time, he was retreating from the white audience he had cultivated during the mid- to late '60s; records like "Make It Funky," "Hot Pants," "Get on the Good Foot," and "The Payback" were huge soul sellers, but only modest pop ones. Critics charged, with some justification, that the Godfather was starting to repeat and recycle himself too many times.

It must be remembered, though, that these songs were made for the singles radio jukebox market and not meant to be played one after the other on CD compilations (as they are today). By the mid-'70s, Brown was beginning to burn out artistically. He seemed shorn of new ideas, was being out-gunned on the charts by disco, and was running into problems with the IRS and his financial empire. There were sporadic hits, and he could always count on enthusiastic live audiences, but by the '80s, he didn't have a label. With the explosion of rap, however, which frequently sampled vintage J.B.'s records, Brown became hipper than ever. He collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa on the critical smash single "Unity" and reentered the Top Ten in 1986 with "Living in America." Rock critics, who had always ranked Brown considerably below Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin in the soul canon, began to reevaluate his output, particularly the material from his funk years, sometimes anointing him not just "Soul Brother Number One," but the most important black musician of the rock era.

In 1988, Brown's personal life came crashing down in a well-publicized incident in which he was accused by his wife of assault and battery. After a year skirting hazy legal and personal troubles, he led the police on an interstate car chase after allegedly threatening people with a handgun. The episode ended in a six-year prison sentence that many felt was excessive; he was paroled after serving two years. Throughout the '90s Brown continued to perform and release new material like Love Over-Due (1991), Universal James (1992), and I'm Back (1998). While none of these recordings could be considered as important as his earlier work and did little to increase his popularity, his classic catalog became more popular in the American mainstream during this time than it had been since the '70s, and not just among young rappers and samplers. One of the main reasons for this was a proper presentation of his recorded legacy. For a long time, his cumbersome, byzantine discography was mostly out of print, with pieces available only on skimpy greatest-hits collections.

A series of exceptionally well-packaged reissues on PolyGram changed that situation; the Star Time box set is the best overview, with other superb compilations devoted to specific phases of his lengthy career, from '50s R&B to '70s funk. In 2004, Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer but successfully fought the disease. By 2006, it was in remission and Brown, then 73, began a global tour dubbed the Seven Decades of Funk World Tour. Late in the year while at a routine dentist appointment, the singer was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment but died of heart failure a few days later, in the early morning hours of Christmas Day. A public viewing was held at Apollo Theater in Harlem, followed by a private ceremony in his hometown of Augusta, GA.

James Brown - Dancer, Songwriter, Activist, Musician, Singer - Biography.com James Brown "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business" "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," was a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader, as well as one of the most iconic figures in funk and soul music from 1956 to 2006. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.” “I started shining shoes at 3 cents, then went up to 5 cents, then 6 cents. I never did get up to a dime. I was 9 years old before I got a pair of underwear from a real store; all my clothes were made from sacks and things like that. But I knew I had to make it.

I had the determination to go on, and my determination was to be somebody.” “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” “Others may have followed in my wake, but I was the one who turned racist minstrelsy into black soul—and by doing so, became a cultural force.” “If people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music.” “I'm not going to tell anybody to pick up a gun.” James Brown Synopsis Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, on May 3, 1933, into extreme poverty, James Brown worked his way to the top of the funk and R&B music earning the moniker "The Godfather of Soul." His unique vocal and musical style influenced many artists. Brown was also known for his turbulent personal life, as well as his social activism, both in his songwriting ("America is My Home," "Black and Proud") and advocating the benefits of education to schoolchildren. Early Life in Georgia The "Godfather of Soul," James Brown, was born James Joe Brown Jr.

on May 3, 1933, in a one-room shack in the woods of Barnwell, South Carolina, a few miles east of the Georgia border. His parents split when he was very young, and at the age of 4, Brown was sent to Augusta, Georgia, to live with his Aunt Honey, the madam of a brothel. Growing up in abject poverty during the Great Depression, a young Brown worked whatever odd jobs he could find, for literally pennies. He danced for the soldiers at nearby Fort Gordon, picked cotton, washed cars and shined shoes. Brown later recalled his impoverished childhood: "I started shining shoes at 3 cents, then went up to 5 cents, then 6 cents. I never did get up to a dime. I was 9 years old before I got a pair of underwear from a real store; all my clothes were made from sacks and things like that. But I knew I had to make it. I had the determination to go on, and my determination was to be somebody." Musical Beginnings Dismissed from school at the age of 12 for "insufficient clothing," Brown turned to working his various odd jobs full-time.

As an escape from the harsh reality of growing up black in the rural South during the Great Depression, Brown turned to religion and to music. He sang in the church choir, where he developed his powerful and uniquely emotive voice. However, as a teenager Brown also turned to crime. At the age of 16, he was arrested for stealing a car and sentenced to three years in prison. While incarcerated, Brown organized and led a prison gospel choir. It was in jail that Brown met Bobby Byrd, an aspiring R&B singer and pianist, forming a friendship and musical partnership that proved one of the most fruitful in music history. Always a gifted athlete, upon his release from prison in 1953 Brown turned his attention to sports and devoted the next two years primarily to boxing and playing semiprofessional baseball. Then, in 1955, Bobby Byrd invited Brown to join his R&B vocal group, The Gospel Starlighters. Brown accepted, and with his overbearing talent and showmanship, he quickly came to dominate the group. Renamed the Famous Flames, they moved to Macon, Georgia, where they performed at local nightclubs.

In 1956, the Famous Flames recorded a demo tape of the song "Please, Please, Please" and played it for Ralph Bass, a talent scout for King Records. Bass was thoroughly impressed by the song, and especially by Brown's passionate and soulful crooning. He offered the group a record contract, and within months "Please, Please, Please" had reached No. 6 on the R&B charts. Superstardom The Flames immediately hit the road, touring the Southeast while opening for such legendary musicians as B.B. King and Ray Charles. But the band didn't have a repeat hit to match the success of "Please, Please, Please," and by the end of 1957, the Flames had returned home. Needing a creative spark and in danger of losing his record deal, in 1958, Brown moved to New York, where, working with different musicians whom he also called the Flames, he recorded "Try Me." The song reached No. 1 on the R&B charts, cracked the Hot 100 Singles chart and kick-started Brown's music career.

He soon followed with a string of hits that included "Lost Someone," "Night Train" and "Prisoner of Love," his first song to crack the Top 10 on the pop charts, peaking at No. 2. In addition to writing and recording music, Brown toured relentlessly. He performed five or six nights a week throughout the 1950s and '60s, a schedule that earned him the title "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business." Brown was a flashy showman, incredible dancer, and soulful singer, and his concerts were hypnotizing displays of exuberance and passion that left audiences in raptures. His saxophonist, Pee Wee Ellis, once said, "When you heard James Brown was coming to town, you stopped what you were doing and started saving your money." Brown fastidiously mastered and performed whatever dances were popular at the time—"the camel walk," "the mashed potato," "the popcorn" —and often improvised his own after announcing that he was about to "do the James Brown." A shrewd and ruthless bandleader and businessman, Brown scheduled his tours to hit "money towns" on the weekends, and demanded perfection from his backup singers and musicians.

He infamously fined musicians for missing notes, and during performances he called out musicians to improvise on the spot. As one of Brown's musicians said, with considerable understatement, "You had to think quick to keep up." On a single night—October 24, 1962—Brown recorded a live concert album at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Initially opposed by King Records because it featured no new songs, Live at the Apollo proved Brown's greatest commercial success yet, peaking at No. 2 on the pop albums chart and firmly establishing his crossover appeal. Brown went on to record many of his most popular and enduring singles during the mid-1960s, including "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." With its unique rhythmic quality, achieved by reducing each instrument to an essentially percussive role, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is considered the first song of a new genre, funk, an offshoot of soul and a precursor of hip-hop. Social Activism In the mid-1960s, James Brown also began devoting more and more energy to social causes.

In 1966, he recorded "Don't Be a Dropout," an eloquent and impassioned plea to the black community to place more focus on education. A staunch believer in exclusively nonviolent protest, Brown once declared to H. Rap Brown of the Black Panthers, "I'm not going to tell anybody to pick up a gun." On April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, with riots raging across the country, Brown gave a rare televised live concert in Boston in an attempt to prevent rioting there. His effort succeeded; young Bostonians stayed home to watch the concert on TV and the city largely avoided violence. A few months later he wrote and recorded "Say It Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud," a protest anthem that has unified and inspired generations.

Troubles & Redemption Throughout the 1970s, Brown continued to perform ceaselessly and recorded several more hits, most notably "Sex Machine" and "Get Up Offa That Thing." Although his career fell off during the late 1970s due to financial troubles and the rise of disco, Brown made an inspired comeback with a multifaceted performance in the classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers. His 1985 song "Living in America," featured prominently in Rocky IV, was his biggest hit in decades. However, after becoming one of the first musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986—the year of its inception—in the late 1980s, Brown slowly slid into a mire of drug addiction and depression. The culmination of his personal troubles came in 1988, when he entered an insurance seminar high on PCP and bearing a shotgun before leading police on a half-hour, high-speed car chase from Augusta, Georgia, into South Carolina. The police had to shoot out Brown's tires to end the chase. The incident led to Brown spending 15 months in jail before being released on parole in 1991.

Re-emerging from prison rehabbed, Brown returned to touring, once again delivering inspired and energetic concerts, albeit on a schedule much reduced from his heyday. He had another run-in with the law in 1998 after he discharged a rifle and led the police in another car chase. After the incident, he was sentenced to a 90-day drug rehabilitation program. Personal Life Brown married four times over the course of his life and had six children. His wives' names were Velma Warren (1953-1969), Deidre Jenkins (1970-1981), Adrienne Rodriguez (1984-1996) and Tomi Rae Hynie (2002-2004). In 2004, Brown was arrested again on charges of domestic violence against Hynie, although he said in a statement: "I would never hurt my wife. I love her very much." Death and Legacy James Brown passed away on December 25, 2006, after a weeklong battle with pneumonia. He was 73 years old. James Brown is unquestionably one of the most influential musical pioneers of the last half-century.

The Godfather of Soul, the inventor of funk, the grandfather of hip-hop—Brown is cited as a seminal influence by artists ranging from Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson to Afrika Bambaataa to Jay-Z. Perfectly aware of his role in American cultural history, Brown wrote in his memoir, "Others may have followed in my wake, but I was the one who turned racist minstrelsy into black soul—and by doing so, became a cultural force." And although he wrote widely and was widely written about, Brown always maintained that there was only one way to truly understand him: "As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music." Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information

Question: Which American soul singer had a backing group called the Famous Flames?
Answer: James Brown